Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke

Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke (24 January 1889-4 July 1968) was a General der Fallschirmtruppe of Nazi Germany during World War II.

Biography
Hermann-Bernhard Ramcke was born on 24 January 1889 in Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein, German Empire. In 1905 he joined the Imperial German Navy and served in World War I aboard SMS Prinz Adalbert. Later, he served with the German Marine Infantry in Flanders and served with the Freikorps in the Baltic in 1919, and in 1937 he became a Lieutenant-Colonel in Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht. Ramcke completed a parachute qualification course in 1940 after transferring to the Luftwaffe, and he served in North Africa under Erwin Rommel before being transferred to Italy in 1943 as a Major-General. After the D-Day landings, he led the 2nd Fallschirmjaeger Division in Normandy and defended the city of Brest in Brittany from the United States. On 19 September 1944, Ramcke surrendered with his 35,000-strong German army after fighting against the US Army for several months, and he was held as a prisoner by the US and France until 1951, with France charging him with the destruction of Brest and the murder of many French civilians. He died in 1968.